A study by Ben Hoen, Ryan Wiser and Peter Cappers of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Mark Thayer at San Diego State University finds that, on average, the sales price of homes with PV systems is boosted enough to cover the homeowner’s own investment in the solar power system.
As The Energy Collective comments:
“…One might, as the Berkeley Labs’ press release does, style this as good news for PV systems (“homes with solar photovoltaic systems sell for a premium over homes without solar systems”). I guess as home improvement projects go, an investment in which homeowners on average get all their money back is pretty good — much better than the return on building a swimming pool, not as good as a minor kitchen makeover.
On the other hand, as another Berkeley Lab reports, average total installed costs of home PV systems have ranged between $7 and $10 per DC watt of capacity installed over the 2001-2009 period included in the first study’s dataset and yet the home price premium is estimated to be about $5.5 per DC watt of capacity. One might expect that taxpayer/ratepayer subsidies for home improvements would on net add to the subsidized homeowner’s value, but apparently that is not the case.”
Sungevity’s corporate blog offers a more enthusiastic commentary:
“…If you’re a solar homeowner, you already know that going solar is a good financial move because of the electricity bill savings. But did you know that customer-owned solar homes have substantially higher resale value?
The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) has just completed a thorough review of the effect of solar PV systems on home prices in California, and their conclusion is staggering: The average non-PV home sold for $480,862 (in 2009 dollars). The average PV home sold for $537,442. That means that, if you own your PV system, you can expect your solar home to sell for 9% more than a comparable non-solar home in your neighborhood.
Or, to look at it another way, LBNL says that the premium on the typical 3-kW PV system is $17,000 — if you sell your home with a paid off PV system, you’ll get $17,000 more thanks to your solar array. (The math is tricky – read the report if you want to geek out on the calculations).
If you’re leasing a system, keep the number 17k in mind when you’re considering whether to pay off the balance of your lease and own your system outright. Paying off your system will more than pay for itself in increased home value.
Factor in the electricity bill savings, and you have yourself a financial win-win. Factor in Mother Earth, and we’ll call it a win-win-win.”
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